


Solid

by toxic_virgo08



Category: Gintama
Genre: F/M, GinTae Festival, Gintae October Week, Gintae Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27121408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toxic_virgo08/pseuds/toxic_virgo08
Summary: Prompt: Gintoki helping a drunk Tae take off her shoes
Relationships: Sakata Gintoki/Shimura Tae
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	Solid

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Please excuse my word vomit hehe.
> 
> This is for GinTae Week.

A chilly night brought Gintoki to Snack Smile. He helped himself with the liquor there to warm him up before heading home. At least that’s what he told himself. He heard the shop closed off one of its rooms for a VIP, that person being the Shogun Shige Shige himself. He gathered that information when the stupid Hijikata let it slip during their trash-talking bout earlier that day. Only the best cabaret girls entertained the Shogun and his entourage. That meant the flat-chested woman was in the room.

He kept hearing laughter and music from the large, closed door on the far left of the club. Hours passed until he started to feel the effects of alcohol in his system. He started to rise from his seat panning to go home when the door opened and out came a very drunk Shogun assisted by Commissioner Matsudaira and Chief Kondo. Hijkata glowered at him with a lit cigarette dangling on his mouth when he passed by Gintoki. He returned the act. The Shinsengumi officers with very flushed faces followed their boss and sped away into the night.

One by one, the cabaret girls left the room and exited the premises to retire for the night. Tae was the last to go. She stopped by the counter where Gin was on her way to the exit.

“Gin-san?” she asked him, confusion written on her face. “What are you doing here?”

“Am I not allowed to unwind on my day off?’ he shot back.

“It’s pretty late. And you always go to the Pachinko with Madao,” she replied as they both exited the building with the manager closing the door behind them. It had been a busy night when their client was the Shogun himself. He can smell the alcohol on her breath as they walked side by side.

He fell in step with her. Without making it obvious, he was walking her home.

“Shouldn’t you go that way?” she spoke when they rounded a corner but he did not change direction.

“With that much money on you, you shouldn't walk alone especially at night,” he told her. Despite her deficiency in the chest department, she's still quite a looker he begrudgingly admitted. But he kept his reason to himself. A bunch of sleazeballs might be lurking around the red light district looking for trouble.

She rolled her sleeves and formed a fist, “Hah! They wouldn’t dare,” she said with such a menacing smile.

“That’s what I said,” he agreed. He did not want to get on her bad side especially with the spirit of alcohol fuelling her making her more dangerous to deal with. He had seen what those fists could do.

When they reached the Kodokan Dojo, they cannot bother Shinpachi in his room whose ears were plugged with the volume turned up from watching a late-night interview with his idol Otsu.

Tae skipped taking off her shoes by the entryway and promptly laid down on the floor from exhaustion and intoxication. He sat down by her feet, "Oi, are you passed out already?" He nudged her leg.

She only hummed in response. He sighed and started to take off her shoes. He looked at her face to check if she was awake. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was even. She was too inebriated to sleep in her room. He did not dare move her from her spot and carry her to her room. He respected her privacy. Besides, Shinpachi will throw a fit if he ever saw Gintoki come out from his sister’s sleeping quarters.

He did not have a hard time removing her shoes. He placed them by the entryway. He noted Tae’s feet were small but they held great power in them fending off her stalker and the sleazy clients who thought they could cross the line. He did not dare move her to her room for fear of being on the receiving end of her powerful round kicks. He valued his life.

So he made sure she was comfortable by placing a pillow on her head and grabbing a blanket from the preoccupied Shinpachi's room before heading out.

Tae opened her eyes when she knew he was fully gone. It was a rare thing for him to do. His gestures made her heart flutter. Gintoki usually left an impression of a devil-may-care attitude to others To everyone else, he may be a bum, a lazy samurai, a conman. But she saw through him, that deep down he actually cared. He may invent other reasons to let others think that he can't be bothered and to hide the fact that he cared but somehow she knew. She was lucky to experience it firsthand from their first meeting until they formed their own pseudo-family. She just has to be observant enough to notice.

> _I am a hundred_
> 
> _different shapes_
> 
> _around everyone else, but with you._
> 
> _With you,_
> 
> _I am solid._
> 
> -Pavana Reddy


End file.
